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- Public Domain Mark 1.0
The most influential work of literature from the Spanish Golden Age and the entire Spanish literary canon translated by John Ormsby (1885)
PART I
BOOK I
THE DETAILS OF THE ADVENTURE DISCOVERED IN THE ARCHIVES OF LA MANCHA
An eccentric gentleman from an unnamed village in La Mancha is mentioned. The man has neglected his estate, squandered his fortune, and driven himself mad by reading too many books about chivalry. Now gaunt at 50, the gentleman decides to become a knight-errant and set off on a great adventure in pursuit of eternal glory. He polishes his old family armour and makes a new pasteboard visor for his helmet. He finds an old nag that he renames Rocinante and takes the new name Don Quixote de la Mancha. Deciding he needs a lady in whose name to perform great deeds, he renames a farm girl on whom he once had a crush, Dulcinea Del Toboso. Don Quixote sets off on his 1ST adventure, the details of which the author claims to have discovered in La Mancha’s archives. After a daylong ride, Don Quixote stops at an inn for supper and repose. He mistakes the scheming innkeeper for the keeper of a castle and mistakes 2 prostitutes he meets outside for princesses. He recites poetry to the 2 prostitutes who laugh at him but play along. They remove his armour and give him dinner. He refuses to remove his helmet that is stuck on his head but enjoys his meal because he believes he is in a great castle where princesses are entertaining him. In the middle of dinner, Don Quixote realises that he has not been properly knighted. He begs the innkeeper to do him the honour. The innkeeper notes Don Quixote’s madness but agrees to his request for the sake of sport, addressing him in flowery language. He tries to cheat Don Quixote but Don Quixote has no money. The innkeeper commands him always to carry some in the future. Trouble arises when guests at the inn try to use the inn’s well to water their animals where Don Quixote’s armour now rests. Don Quixote, riled and invoking Dulcinea’s name, knocks a guest unconscious and smashes the skull of another. Alarmed, the innkeeper quickly performs a bizarre knighting ceremony and sends Don Quixote on his way. Don Quixote begs the favour of the 2 prostitutes, thanks the innkeeper for knighting him, and leaves. On the way home to fetch money and fresh clothing, Don Quixote hears crying and finds a farmer whipping a young boy. The farmer explains that the boy has been failing in his duties. The boy complains that his master has not been paying him. Don Quixote, calling the farmer a knight, tells him to pay the boy. The boy tells Don Quixote that the farmer is not a knight but Don Quixote ignores him. The farmer swears by his knighthood that he will pay the boy. As Don Quixote rides away, satisfied, the farmer flogs the boy even more severely. Don Quixote then meets a group of merchants and orders them to proclaim the beauty of Dulcinea. The merchants inadvertently insult her and Don Quixote attacks them. But Rocinante stumbles in mid-charge and Don Quixote falls pitifully to the ground. One of the merchants’ mule-drivers beats Don Quixote and breaks his lance. The group departs, leaving Don Quixote face down near the road. A labourer finds Don Quixote lying near the road and leads him home on his mule. Don Quixote showers the labourer with chivalric verse, comparing his troubles to those of the great knights about whom he has read. The labourer waits for night before entering the town with Don Quixote in the hopes of preserving the wounded man’s dignity. But Don Quixote’s friends, the barber and the priest are at his house. They have just resolved to investigate his books when Don Quixote and the labourer arrive. The family receives, feeds, and sends Don Quixote to bed. The priest and the barber begin an inquisition into Don Quixote’s library to burn the books of chivalry. Though the housekeeper wants merely to exorcise any spirits with holy water, Don Quixote’s niece prefers to burn all the books. Over the niece’s and the housekeeper’s objections, the priest insists on reading each book’s title before condemning it. He knows many of the stories and saves several of the books due to their rarity or style. He suggests that all the poetry be saved but decides against it because the niece fears that Don Quixote will then become a poet – a vocation even worse than knight-errant. The priest soon discovers a book by the author who he claims is a friend of his. He says that the author’ work has clever ideas but that it never fulfils its potential. He decides to keep the novel, expecting that the sequel the author has promised will eventually be published. Don Quixote wakes, still delusional and interrupts the priest and the barber. Having walled up the entrance to the library, they decide to tell Don Quixote that an enchanter has carried off all his books and the library itself. That night, the housekeeper burns all the books. 2 days later when Don Quixote rises from bed and looks for his books, his niece tells him that an enchanter came on a cloud with a dragon, took the books due to a grudge he held against Don Quixote, and left the house full of smoke. Don Quixote believes her and explains that he recognises this enchanter as his arch-rival who knows that Don Quixote will defeat the enchanter’s favourite knight. Don Quixote’s niece begs him to abandon his quest but he refuses. He promises an illiterate labourer, Sancho Panza that he will make him governor of an isle if Sancho leaves his wife, Teresa and children to become Don Quixote’s squire. Sancho agrees and after he acquires a donkey, they ride from the village, discussing the isle. After a full day, Don Quixote and Sancho come to a field of windmills that Don Quixote mistakes for giants. Don Quixote charges at one at full speed and his lance gets caught in the windmill’s sail, throwing him and Rocinante to the ground. Don Quixote assures Sancho that the same enemy enchanter who has stolen his library turned the giants into windmills at the last minute. The 2 ride on and Don Quixote explains to Sancho that knights-errant should never complain of injury or hunger. He tears a branch from a tree to replace the lance he broke in the windmill encounter. He and Sancho camp for the night but Don Quixote does not sleep and instead stays up all night remembering his love, Dulcinea. The next day, Don Quixote and Sancho encounter 2 monks and a carriage carrying a lady and her attendants. Don Quixote thinks that the 2 monks are enchanters who have captured a princess and attacks them, ignoring Sancho’s and the monks’ protests. He knocks a monk off his mule. Sancho believing he is rightly taking spoils from Don Quixote’s battle, begins to rob the monk of his clothes. The monks’ servants beat Sancho and the 2 monks ride off. Don Quixote tells the lady to return to Toboso and present herself to Dulcinea. He argues with one of her attendants and soon gets into a battle with him. The battle is described in great detail but cuts off the narration just as Don Quixote is about to deliver the mortal blow.
The author explains that the historical account from which he has been working ends at precisely this point.
BOOK II
CHIVALRIC LOVE
The author was quite irked by this break in the text, believing that such a knight deserves to have his tale told by a great sage. He says that he was at a fair in the Spanish city of Toledo when he discovered a boy selling Arabic parchments in the street. He hired a Moor to read him some of the stories. When the Moor began to translate one line about Dulcinea that read that she was the best hand at salting beef of any woman in all La Mancha, the author rushed the Moor to his home to have him translate the whole parchment. The parchment contained the history of Don Quixote, written by Cid Hamete Benengeli. From this point on, the author claims that his work is a translation of Benengeli’s story. This 2ND portion of the manuscript begins with the conclusion of the preceding battle.
The attendant gives Don Quixote a mighty blow, splitting his ear. Don Quixote knocks the man down and threatens to kill him. He spares him when several ladies travelling with the man promise that the man will present himself to Dulcinea. Afterward, Sancho begs Don Quixote to make him governor of the isle that he believes they have won in battle. Don Quixote assures him that he will fulfil his promise soon. Sancho then begins to worry that the authorities might come after them for beating the lady’s attendant. Don Quixote assures Sancho that knights never go to jail since they are permitted to use violence in the pursuit of justice. Sancho offers to care for Don Quixote’s bleeding ear. Don Quixote tells him about the Balsam of Fierbras that he says has the power to cure any wound and is easy to make. Sancho suggests that they could make money by producing the balsam but Don Quixote dismisses the suggestion. Upon seeing the damage that the attend-ant did to his helmet, he swears revenge but Sancho reminds him that the attendant promised to present himself to Dulcinea in return. Don Quixote abandons his oath of revenge and swears to maintain a strict lifestyle until he gets a new helmet. Unable to secure other lodging, the 2 sleep out under the sky that pleases Don Quixote’s romantic sensibilities but displeases Sancho. Don Quixote and Sancho join a group of goatherds for the night. They eat, drink together, and Sancho gets drunk on the goatherds’ wine while Don Quixote tells the group about the golden age in which virgins roamed the world freely and without fear. He says that knights were created to protect the purity of these virgins. A singing goatherd then arrives. At the request of the others and despite Sancho’s protests, he sings a love ballad to the group. One of the goatherds dresses Don Quixote’s wounded ear with a poultice that heals it. A goatherd named Peter arrives with news that the shepherd-student Chrysostom has died from his love for Marcela. As Peter tells the story of the lovesick Chrysostom, Don Quixote interrupts several times to correct Peter’s poor speech. Peter explains that Marcela is a wealthy, beautiful orphan who has abandoned her wealth for a shepherdess’ life. Modest and kind, Marcela charms everyone but refuses to marry. That has given her a reputation for cruelty in affairs of the heart. The goatherds invite Don Quixote to accompany them to Chrysostom’s burial the next day and he accepts. They all go to sleep except for Don Quixote who stays up all night sighing for Dulcinea. On the way to the funeral, a traveller named Vivaldo asks Don Quixote why he wears armour in such a peaceful country. Don Quixote explains the principles of knighthood. Vivaldo compares the severity of the knight’s lifestyle to that of a monk’s and Don Quixote says that knights execute the Will of God for which the monks pray. Vivaldo and Don Quixote discuss knight-errantry and Don Quixote explains that tradition dictates that knights-errant dedicate themselves to ladies rather than God. He adds that all knights-errant are in love even if they do not show it. He describes Dulcinea to the company in flowery and poetic terms. The group then arrives at the burial site where 6 men arrive, carrying Chrysostom’s body. Chrysostom’s friend Ambrosio makes a speech exalting the deceased and Vivaldo asks him to save some of Chrysostom’s poetry despite Chrysostom’s request that it be burned. Vivaldo takes one poem and Ambrosio asks him to read it aloud. Vivaldo reads the poem aloud. It praises Marcela’s beauty, laments her cruelty, and ends with Chrysostom’s dying wish that famous Greek mythical characters receive him in the afterlife. Marcela herself then appears and claims never to have given Chrysostom or any of her other suitors any hope of winning her affection. She attributes all her beauty to heaven and says she is not at fault for remaining chaste. Marcela leaves before Ambrosio can respond. Some of the men try to follow her but Don Quixote says he will kill anyone who pursues her. He then follows Marcela to offer her his services.
BOOK III
THE FOLLIES OF THE KNIGHTS-ERRANT
Don Quixote and Sancho stop to rest and eat lunch. Rocinante wanders off into a herd of mares owned by a group of Yanguesans and tries to mate with them. The Yanguesans beat Rocinante. Don Quixote then attacks the numerous Yanguesans. He and Sancho lose the battle. While lying on the ground, Don Quixote and Sancho discuss the balsam that Don Quixote claims knights use to cure wounds. Don Quixote blames their defeat on the fact that he drew his sword against non-knights, a clear violation of the chivalric code. The 2 quarrel about the value that fighting has in the life of a knight-errant. On Don Quixote’s orders, Sancho leads him to an inn on his donkey. They arrive at another inn that Don Quixote mistakes for a castle. Rather than admit that Don Quixote received a vicious thrashing from a gang of Yanguesans, Sancho tells the innkeeper that his master fell and injured himself. The innkeeper’s wife and beautiful daughter tend to Don Quixote’s wounds. Don Quixote begins to believe that the daughter has fallen in love and promised to lie with him that night. In actuality, Maritornes, the daughter’s hunchbacked servant creeps in that night to sleep with a carrier who is sharing a room with Don Quixote and Sancho. The author then tells us that Cid Hamete Benengeli specially mentions the carrier because Benengeli is related to him. Nearly blind, Maritornes accidentally goes to Don Quixote’s bed instead of the carrier’s. Don Quixote mistakes her for the beautiful daughter, tries to woo her, and the carrier attacks him. Maritornes jumps into Sancho’s bed to hide. Awakened by the commotion, the innkeeper goes to the bedroom and he, the carrier, and Sancho have a terrific brawl. An officer staying at the inn hears the fighting and goes upstairs to break it up. The officer sees Don Quixote passed out on the bed and believes he is dead. He leaves to get a light to investigate the scene. Don Quixote tells Sancho that the inn is enchanted and recounts his version of the evening’s events. He says a princess came in to woo him and a giant beat him up. Just then, the officer returns and Don Quixote insults him, provoking him to beat Don Quixote. Sancho, angry about his own injuries rails against Don Quixote’s story but Don Quixote promises to make the balsam to cure Sancho. He tells Sancho not to get angry over enchantments since they cannot be stopped. Don Quixote mixes ingredients and drinks the potion. He vomits immediately and passes out. Upon waking, he feels much better and believes he has successfully concocted the mythical balsam. Sancho also takes the potion and although it makes him tremendously ill, he does not vomit. Don Quixote explains that the balsam does not work on Sancho because he is a squire and not a knight. As Don Quixote leaves the inn, the innkeeper demands that he pay for his stay. Surprised that he has stayed in an inn and not a castle, Don Quixote refuses to pay on the grounds that knights-errant never pay for lodging. He rides off, slinging insults at the innkeeper. Several rogues at the inn capture Sancho who also refuses to pay and toss him in a blanket. Don Quixote, too bruised to dismount from Rocinante believes that the enchantment prevents him from helping Sancho. Sancho finally gets away and feels proud for not having paid. But it turns out that the innkeeper has stolen Sancho’s saddlebags. As they ride away from the inn, Sancho complains bitterly to Don Quixote about the injuries their misadventures cause him. Suddenly Don Quixote sees clouds of dust coming along the road and mistakes them for 2 great armies on the brink of battle. Sancho warns his master that the 2 clouds actually came from 2 herds of sheep. Unconvinced, Don Quixote describes in great detail the knights he thinks he sees in the dust. The author eventually cuts off the account, remarking that Don Quixote is merely reeling off ideas he has encountered in his lying books about chivalry. Don Quixote rushes into the battle and kills 7 sheep before 2 shepherds throw stones at him and knock out several of his teeth. Sancho points out that the armies were really just sheep, prompting Don Quixote to explain that a sorcerer turned the armies into sheep in the midst of battle to thwart his efforts. Don Quixote takes more of the balsam and as Sancho comes close to see how badly his master’s teeth have been injured, Don Quixote vomits on him. Nauseous, Sancho then vomits on Don Quixote. When Sancho tries to fetch something to clean them up, he discovers that his saddlebags have been stolen. Fed up, he vows to go home. Don Quixote says that he would rather sleep in an inn that night than in the field and tells Sancho to lead them to an inn. Sancho tells Don Quixote that their troubles stem from Don Quixote’s violation of his vow to keep a strict lifestyle until he finds a new helmet. Don Quixote agrees, noting that he had forgotten the vow and blames Sancho for failing to remind him. As night falls, the 2 encounter a group of priests mourning as they escort the body of a dead man. When the priests refuse to identify themselves, Don Quixote knocks one of them off his horse and the others scatter. Don Quixote tells the wounded priest that he has come to avenge their injuries. The priest complains that Don Quixote has injured him, avenging nothing. Sancho steals goods from the priest’s mule. As the priest rides away, Sancho yells after him that this mischief was the work of Don Quixote, the Knight of the Sad Countenance. Pleased with his new title, Don Quixote asks Sancho where he came up with it. Sancho replies that Don Quixote’s face looks sad without its teeth. But Don Quixote asserts that Sancho so named him because a sage who Don Quixote claims is dictating his life’s story, made Sancho think of this title. The 2 ride into a valley and eat dinner. They then have a conversation that the author promises to record. Don Quixote and Sancho hear a scary pounding. Sancho implores his master to wait until morning to investigate the sound but Don Quixote swears to take on the unknown foe. Don Quixote tells Sancho to wait 3 days and then report his death to Dulcinea if he has not returned. Sancho secretly ties up Rocinante’s legs, immobilising him, and Don Quixote concedes that since Rocinante seems unable to move, he must wait until morning to investigate. Sancho begins telling a story. He tells each detail twice. Don Quixote interrupts and commands him to tell the story only once. But Sancho says that this is the way stories are told in his homeland so Don Quixote allows him to proceed. Sancho then vividly describes a shepherdess. Don Quixote asks whether he knew the shepherdess. Sancho says that he did not but that when he first heard the tale, it seemed so real that he could swear he had seen her. Sancho tells how a shepherd in love with this shepherdess had to cross a river with a herd of goats and Sancho instructs Don Quixote to keep count while he tells the story of how many goats the character takes across. Midway through, Don Quixote tells Sancho to proceed with the story as though all the goats were already across. Sancho asks his master whether he knows how many goats have already crossed and Don Quixote admits that he does not. Sancho stops his story and Don Quixote cannot persuade him to tell the rest of it. In the morning, Sancho and Don Quixote set off. Sancho’s faithfulness convinces Don Quixote that Sancho is a good man. When the 2 arrive at a small bunch of houses by a river, they discover that the scary pounding comes from fulling-hammers that are used to beat cloth. Sancho laughs and Don Quixote hits him with his lance. Don Quixote says that Sancho must speak less to him in the future. Sancho accepts the order after Don Quixote tells him that he has left Sancho money in his will. Don Quixote and Sancho see a man on a mule with something glittering on his head. The man is a barber wearing a basin on his head to protect him from the rain. But Don Quixote mistakes the man for a great knight wearing the mythic Mambrino’s helmet and vows to win the helmet from him. When the barber sees Don Quixote charging at him, the barber runs away, leaving behind his mule and basin. Sancho laughs at Don Quixote and tells him that the helmet is just a basin. Don Quixote explains that the enchanted helmet must have fallen into the hands of someone who did not know its value and then melted it down, making it into a basin. He resolves to wear it in the meantime and have it made back into a helmet at the next village. When Sancho again begins to complain about the treatment he received at the inn while Don Quixote stood by idly, Don Quixote explains that Sancho’s treatment was just a joke. He adds that had it been serious, he would have returned to avenge it. Don Quixote then explains how he will win the affections of a princess by fighting for her father, the king. He says he will then marry her and make Sancho rich. The manuscript continues with the account of Don Quixote and Sancho’s encounter with a chain gang of galley slaves. The prisoners are guarded by 2 armed men on foot and 2 armed horsemen. Sancho warns Don Quixote not to interfere with the chain gang but Don Quixote approaches the group anyway and asks each prisoner to tell his story. Each slave makes up a story in which his criminal actions appear to be justified or even necessary. Upon seeing the men detained against their will, Don Quixote charges the officers. Anxious to be free, the prisoners join the charge. After the men gain freedom, Don Quixote commands them to present themselves to Dulcinea that they refuse to do out of fear for their safety. Don Quixote insults them and they attack him, running away with his and Sancho’s possessions. Freeing the galley slaves distresses Sancho who is concerned that the Holy Brotherhood or the police will come after them. Sancho urges Don Quixote to flee into the mountains. Don Quixote and Sancho ride into the woods of the Sierra Morena. Unfortunately for them, one of the galley slaves, Gines de Pasamonte is also hiding in these woods. Gines steals Sancho’s donkey whose name we now learn is Dapple. On the road through the mountains, Don Quixote and Sancho find a saddle and a bag containing a notebook, shirts, and money. Don Quixote gives Sancho the money and Sancho decides that this payment makes up for all his previous troubles. In the notebook, Don Quixote finds a poem and a love letter that indicate that their author was spurned by his lover and driven to madness by her infidelity. Don Quixote then sees a nearly naked man hopping through the wilderness and resolves to follow him and learn his tale. Sancho opposes the idea because he wants to protect the money they have found and fears that the man might claim the money if they catch up with him. Don Quixote explains to Sancho however, that they have no choice but to look for the naked man once they consider that the money might belong to him. While searching for the man, Don Quixote and Sancho encounter an old goatherd who tells them the story of the naked man. A polite, rich gentleman, he appeared one day to ask the goatherds to help him locate the wildest part of the Sierra Morena. The goatherds pointed the man in a direction and he ran off. Later he returned and assaulted one of the goatherds on the road, stealing his food. They pursued him and several days later found him in a ragged state so they offered him food and care. The man treated them courteously at some times but rudely at others. Just as the old goatherd concludes the story, the man whom the author now calls the Ragged Knight of the Sorry Countenance appears. Don Quixote gives him a long hug. The Ragged Knight of the Sorry Countenance asks Don Quixote for food and then says that he will tell his story as long as Don Quixote and the others promise not to interrupt him. His name is Cardenio and is a wealthy nobleman from the region of Andalusia in southern Spain. From childhood he has been madly in love with the beautiful Lucinda. The 2 were to be married but Cardenio received a letter from a duke requesting Cardenio’s service as a companion to the Duke’s son Ferdinand. Cardenio went to the Duke and met Ferdinand. Ferdinand immediately liked Cardenio and the 2 became friends. Ferdinand was in love with a young farmer’s daughter but had wooed her secretly and did not want to tell his father. To avoid his father’s wrath, Ferdinand decided that he needed to go away for a little while and forget about the farmer’s daughter. He asked to go to Cardenio’s parents’ home under the pretext of buying some horses. There Ferdinand met Lucinda whom he praised as one of the great beauties of the world. Cardenio mentions that Lucinda was a fan of chivalric books. Cardenio and Don Quixote then spar over whether a queen in one of the books mentioned had an affair with her counsellor. The altercation ends Cardenio’s story and sends him into a fit of madness. He beats Sancho, the goatherd, and Don Quixote before running off into the wilderness. As Sancho and Don Quixote ride away, Sancho becomes angry with his master for imposing a code of silence on him and for arguing inanely with Cardenio. Don Quixote retracts his order that Sancho remain silent but stands by his defence of the fictional queen. Don Quixote then tells Sancho that he will be staying alone in the Sierra Morena to do penance in order to win honour for himself. He says that he has been absent from Dulcinea for so long that he has concerns about her fidelity. Instead of returning to check up on her, he has decided that it would be more valorous to go mad imagining the slights his ladylove has committed against him. Sancho derides his master’s plan as folly and Don Quixote is amazed that Sancho has not yet realised that everything knights-errant do is folly. Don Quixote writes a love letter for Sancho to convey to Dulcinea and then reveals Dulcinea’s identity to him. Sancho is shocked since he knows her to be a coarse peasant. But Don Quixote tells Sancho that many ladyloves were invented princesses whose only purpose was to inspire their knights-errant and therefore, Dulcinea is a princess if he says she is. Sancho promises to return as quickly as he can and after watching Don Quixote take off his trousers and do a headstand to indicate his madness, he sets off on Rocinante. In his penance, Don Quixote decides to follow the example of the great knight Amadis, commending himself to God and praying in the name of Dulcinea. He wanders around the valley, writing verses on trees. Sancho encounters the priest and the barber at the inn on his way home where he was tossed in the blanket. The priest and the barber stop and ask him what has become of Don Quixote. Sancho tells them about his master’s penance and the letter he must deliver to Dulcinea. He explains that Don Quixote has promised to give him a governorship and a beautiful wife when Don Quixote himself becomes an emperor. The priest and the barber conclude that Sancho has gone mad and promise him in jest that Don Quixote will certainly become an emperor or at least an archbishop. This last point troubles Sancho because he fears that an archbishop would not provide him with adequate rewards. The priest and the barber then decide to go to Don Quixote, disguising themselves as a damsel in distress and her squire in order to trick Don Quixote into coming home again. Equipped with their costumes, the priest and the barber set out with Sancho to find Don Quixote and lure him home again. Sancho relates to them the saga of his adventures as they journey. When they arrive, Sancho goes on ahead, planning to tell Don Quixote that he has seen Dulcinea, given her his letter, and she begs for Don Quixote to come home to her. If Don Quixote still refuses to come home, the priest and the barber will go ahead with their plan to pretend to be a damsel in distress who seeks his assistance. While waiting for Sancho to return, the priest and the barber encounter Cardenio who tells them his story, this time including the conclusion that he failed to recount to Don Quixote. Cardenio explains that Ferdinand while visiting Cardenio’s house found a letter from Lucinda and was so taken with her that he devised a plan to win her for himself. Ferdinand sent Cardenio go back to the Duke’s house and proposed to Lucinda. While at the Duke’s house, Cardenio received a letter from Lucinda begging him to come home because Ferdinand had proposed, her greedy parents had accepted, and she felt that she would soon kill herself. Cardenio rushed home just in time to see the wedding take place. Despite her words, Lucinda did not kill herself but instead accepted Ferdinand as her husband. Cardenio rushed away from the wedding and went out into the wilderness, driven mad with grief and hatred.
The author interrupts to say that the end of Cardenio’s story marks the end of the 3RD part of the history by Cid Hamete Benengeli.
BOOK IV
PENANCE & PROMISES
Before returning to the narration, the author says that Don Quixote’s era is lucky that Don Quixote has brought back knight-errantry. Back in the story:
The priest, the barber, and Cardenio meet a young woman named Dorothea whom they initially take for a man because she is wearing a man’s clothes. Dorothea tells her tragic story. The incredibly beautiful daughter of a wealthy farmer, she happened to attract the attention of the son of her father’s master. The son wooed her persistently but she resisted until one day when he appeared in her bedroom by trickery and swore to marry her. She succumbed to him because she was afraid he would rape her if she did not. He left town and abandoned her. Dorothea chased him in hopes of enforcing his pledge to marry her but discovered that he had already married someone else in a nearby town. She then relates the circumstances of that marriage, revealing that the son who falsely proposed to her was Ferdinand, the Duke’s son and his new bride in the nearby town was Lucinda. Dorothea tells them she then ran off into the wilderness out of shame. Cardenio is thrilled to learn from Dorothea that when Lucinda fainted, Ferdinand found a letter on her that revealed her love for Cardenio. Cardenio vows to help Dorothea avenge the wrong Ferdinand has done to her. Dorothea offers to play the distressed damsel in the plot to lure Don Quixote home. Sancho returns with news that Don Quixote refuses to return to Dulcinea until he has won honour through penance. The priest tells Sancho that Dorothea is Princess Micomicona who is seeking Don Quixote’s help to redress a wrong a giant has done her. Sancho, the costumed Dorothea, and the barber wearing a fake beard find Don Quixote. In high poetic style, Dorothea beseeches Don Quixote to slay a giant who has taken over her kingdom. Don Quixote promises to follow her and engage in no other adventures along the way. Sancho is pleased, believing he will now get his governorship. The priest and Cardenio overtake the party on the road. The priest greets Don Quixote who recognises neither the priest nor Cardenio. The priest tells Don Quixote that the freed galley slaves have mugged him and the barber. Dorothea weaves a story about the giant who has attacked her kingdom. She slips up several times during the story, even forgetting the name the priest has given her and the priest has to interject to prevent her from revealing their ploy. Dorothea says she will marry Don Quixote after he vanquishes the giant but Don Quixote refuses because he loves Dulcinea. His refusal upsets Sancho who insults Dulcinea. Don Quixote beats Sancho. Just then, Gines de Pasamonte reappears with Sancho’s donkey and flees on foot. Cardenio and Dorothea discuss Don Quixote’s madness and Cardenio remarks that Don Quixote is so crazy that he is sure no author could have invented him. Don Quixote pulls Sancho aside and begs him to tell about his visit to Dulcinea. Sancho makes up a story, saying that Dulcinea was at work and did not have the time or ability to read Don Quixote’s letter. As they ride along, the young boy whom Don Quixote tried to save from his master in Chapter 4 appears, reviling Don Quixote for stupidly accepting his master’s word and leaving him to a worse beating. Don Quixote swears that he will reap vengeance on the young shepherd’s master but the young shepherd tells Don Quixote not to interfere in the future, fearing that he would only make matters worse. Don Quixote, Sancho, the priest, the barber, Dorothea, and Cardenio arrive at the same inn where Sancho was tossed in the blanket. The barber takes off his disguise. The innkeeper, his wife, their daughter, and Maritornes join the priest, the barber, Dorothea, and Cardenio to talk about Don Quixote’s madness and the books that have caused it. The priest and the barber want to burn the inn’s collection of chivalric literature but the innkeeper defends these tales, claiming that the government would not allow them to be published if they were untrue. But he adds that he will never become a knight-errant because he knows chivalry is out of style. He tells the company that an unnamed man left an old trunk filled with books and manuscripts at the inn. The priest despite his scepticism about the books of chivalry asks the innkeeper for permission to copy one of the manuscripts that the priest reads to the crowd. The manuscript that the priest reads tells the story of Anselmo and Lothario, 2 close friends who live in Florence, Italy. Anselmo marries Camilla, a beautiful woman who has the purest intentions. One day Anselmo tells Lothario he wants to test Camilla’s purity and chastity. He asks Lothario to woo Camilla to see whether she will be able to resist. Lothario in a lengthy speech filled with sonnets and classical references tells Anselmo that his plan is stupid but Anselmo does not listen. Lothario falsely tells Anselmo on several occasions that he has tried and failed to woo Camilla. Anselmo spies on the 2 of them and realises that Lothario has been lying to him—he has made no false advances toward Camilla. Anselmo makes Lothario swear that he will try to woo Camilla while Anselmo is away for a week on a business trip. Lothario does try to woo Camilla and inadvertently falls in love with her. Camilla sends a letter to Anselmo begging him to come home and rescue her from his deceitful friend Lothario. Anselmo receives Camilla’s letter, realises that his plan is working, and refuses to come home early. Over time Camilla succumbs to Lothario’s advances and they begin a love affair. When Anselmo returns, Lothario tells him that Camilla has resisted his seduction. Anselmo adds to the plan by asking Lothario to write love poetry for Camilla that the love-struck Lothario is now thrilled to do. Camilla’s maid, Leonella helps Lothario and Camilla carry on their affair and takes a lover of her own. Though worried that Leonella will bring her shame, Camilla does not interfere because she fears Leonella will tell Anselmo about her affair with Lothario. One morning, Lothario sees Leonella’s lover leaving the house and thinks Camilla has taken another lover. In a fit of jealous rage, he tells Anselmo that he has seduced Camilla but that she has not yet acted on her love for him. Lothario reveals Camilla’s plan to meet him in a closet on a certain day and encourages Anselmo to observe his wife’s infidelity. In the meantime, Camilla tells Lothario of her concerns about Leonella, prompting Lothario to realise his mistake. He tells her about his blunder and she forms a plan to trick Anselmo so that she and Lothario can carry out their affair in the open. She meets Lothario in the closet and aware that Anselmo is watching, pretends to stab herself rather than give up her purity to Lothario. The deception works, enabling Camilla to carry on her affair with Lothario without Anselmo ever suspecting. While the priest is reading, Sancho rushes into the room to tell everyone that Don Quixote has slain the giant who captured Dorothea’s kingdom. Rushing to see what has happened, they find that Don Quixote is battling the giant in his sleep and has destroyed several of the innkeeper’s skins that Sancho has mistaken for a giant’s head. When Sancho cannot find the giant’s head, he becomes crazed, fearing that he will not get his governorship. The priest finishes reading the story contained in the manuscript. Anselmo discovers Leonella’s affair. To prevent Anselmo from killing her, Leonella promises to tell him something very important the next morning. When Anselmo tells Camilla about his discovery, she runs away to Lothario’s, afraid that Leonella will reveal their affair to Anselmo. Camilla and Lothario flee. When Anselmo wakes the next morning, Leonella has run away. Not finding Camilla either, Anselmo goes to Lothario’s for help and discovers that Lothario too has left. On the way to another friend’s house, he learns of Lothario and Camilla’s treachery from a traveller. Reaching his friend’s house, Anselmo dies of grief from the loss of his honour. The priest announces that he likes the manuscript but finds it impossible to believe that a husband could be so stupid. Ferdinand and Lucinda arrive at the inn in disguise. After a tearful scene, Ferdinand reunites with Dorothea and Cardenio reunites with Lucinda. Ferdinand tells the company that he and his friends kidnapped Lucinda from the convent where she stayed after running away from the wedding. He now swears his love for Dorothea. Everyone weeps with joy except Sancho who weeps for the loss of his kingdom now that he and Don Quixote know that Dorothea is not a princess. In distress, Sancho wakes Don Quixote to tell him that Dorothea is not really a princess and the giant he fought in his dreams was really just a skin. Don Quixote dismisses Sancho’s news merely as further evidence of the inn’s enchantment. He reassures Dorothea that he has sworn to be her protector and it was unnecessary for her father to turn her into an ordinary maiden to protect her from the enchantment. He then tells her about his fight with the giant but stops mid-tale, remarking that the time that unveils all mysteries will reveal this one when they least expect it. Dorothea tells Don Quixote that she is still the Princess Micomicona and still needs his assistance. While Don Quixote berates Sancho for his apparent lie, a traveller dressed like a Moor – hereafter referred to as the captive – and his beautiful companion, Zoraida arrive at the inn in search of a place to stay. The captive tells the company that Zoraida is a Jewish lady of rank who wants to be baptised. Over dinner, Don Quixote gives a speech about the relative merits of scholars and knights. He is so articulate that at that moment no one thinks he is crazy. Don Quixote continues his lecture on the superiority of knights over scholars. Everyone is impressed with his intelligence but still no one believes that chivalry is more important than scholarship. The captive begins to tell the story of his imprisonment and rescue in Moorish lands. The captive tells the group that he left home many years earlier after his father divided the family estate and ordered his 3 sons to leave home to become a soldier, a priest, and a sailor respectively. He gives a lengthy account of the wars in which he has fought. The captive mentions that he fought alongside Don Pedro de Aguilar, Ferdinand’s brother. The captive recounts his capture and imprisonment in Algiers. One day he was on the roof of the prison when Zoraida who had fallen in love with him from afar, dropped some money to him from a window. Along with the money, she included a letter that said she had converted to Christianity and that offered him financial assistance to escape, free, and bring her to Spain to be his wife. The captive used Zoraida’s money to ransom himself and some of his fellow prisoners, buy a boat, and make arrangements to free Zoraida from her father’s home. The captive says that he snuck into Zoraida’s father’s garden to see her, told her of his plan to escape from Algiers, and finally kidnapped her. Zoraida’s father awoke while the captive was kidnapping her so they brought the father with them on the ship and dropped him off some miles away from the city. The captive and his companions rowed for several days until French pirates robbed them of all Zoraida’s riches. Once they arrived in Spain, they determined to go to the captive’s father, baptise Zoraida, and get married. After the captive finishes his story, a judge named Licentiate Juan Perez de Viedma arrives at the inn with his beautiful daughter, Clara. The captive realises that the judge is his brother. The priest reunites the 2 after successfully testing the judge to see whether he still loves his missing brother. While everyone sleeps that night, a youth sings love ballads outside the inn. Cardenio creeps into the women’s room to tell them to listen. Dorothea wakes Clara so she can hear the singing, saying it is the most beautiful singing she has ever heard. Clara reveals that the singing youth is actually a young lord who used to live with his father next door to her and the judge. Clara adds that he has followed her in disguise because he is in love with her. She and the young lord have never spoken but she loves and wishes to marry him. Dorothea promises to try to arrange for Clara to speak with him. Meanwhile, Don Quixote stands guard outside the inn. The innkeeper’s daughter and her maid, Maritornes fool him into giving them his hand through a window. They tie his hand to a door and leave him standing in his stirrups on Rocinante’s back for the night. 4 horsemen arrive and mock Don Quixote as they try to enter the inn. Don Quixote makes such a racket that the innkeeper comes out to see what is going on. The horsemen are servants to the father of Don Louis, the young lord in love with Clara. The 4 horsemen find Don Louis and order him to come home with them but he refuses. The judge takes Don Louis aside and asks him why he refuses to return home. Meanwhile, 2 guests attempt to leave the inn without paying and the innkeeper fights them. Don Quixote refuses to assist the innkeeper because he has sworn to engage in no new adventures until he has slain the giant who captured Dorothea’s kingdom. The author returns to the conversation between Don Louis and the judge. Don Louis tells the judge of his love for Clara and begs for her hand in marriage. The judge says he will consider the proposal. Meanwhile, Don Quixote through words alone has successfully persuaded the 2 guests to quit beating the innkeeper. A barber – the same one from whom Don Quixote earlier steals the basin that he believes is Mambrino’s helmet – arrives at the inn. The barber accuses Don Quixote and Sancho of theft but Sancho defends them by claiming that Don Quixote vanquished the barber and took the items as spoils of war. The people at the inn play along with Don Quixote’s insistence that the basin is actually Mambrino’s helmet. A huge fight breaks out but Don Quixote finally ends the brawl by asking the priest and the judge to calm everyone. The judge decides to bring Don Louis to Andalusia along with him and Clara and tells the servants about his plan. A member of the Holy Brotherhood, attracted to the scene by the outbreak of violence, realises that he has a warrant for Don Quixote’s arrest for freeing the galley slaves. Don Quixote laughs at the man and rails about the stupidity of trying to arrest a knight-errant. The priest pacifies the members of the Holy Brotherhood by convincing them that Don Quixote is insane and should not be held accountable for his actions. Still under the impression that Dorothea is the Princess Micomicona, Don Quixote tells her that the time has come to continue their journey to her kingdom so that he may slay the giant. Sancho objects, telling everyone that he has seen Dorothea kissing Ferdinand and she cannot therefore, be a princess. Don Quixote is infuriated by Sancho’s insolence but Dorothea pacifies him by telling him that Sancho must have been subject to an enchantment that made him believe he saw her kissing Ferdinand. Don Quixote forgives Sancho who says he believes that the inn must be enchanted because of all the bizarre things that have happened. Sancho adds however, that he is still certain that the blanket-tossing he received there was an act committed by real people. Don Quixote assures Sancho that the blanket-tossing was an enchantment as well. That is why Don Quixote has not avenged it. Sancho does not believe him. The barber and priest contrive a plan to get Don Quixote back to their village without the help of Dorothea and Ferdinand. They build a cage, capture, bind, and place Don Quixote in the cage on the back of an ox cart. The barber then pretends to be a sage and predicts Don Quixote’s valorous return to his village, his reunion, and marriage to Dulcinea. Don Quixote accepts the enchantment that he believes is afflicting him but wonders why he travels so slowly. He concludes that enchantments must have changed since the old days when knights were whisked away on clouds and travelled at very high speeds. Sancho warns Don Quixote that he is not enchanted but Don Quixote does not believe him. As the group leaves, the innkeeper gives the priest some papers from the trunk the unknown man left at the inn. The priest is anxious to read them. On the road, the group meets another priest, a canon of Toledo who rides with the group for a while to talk to the priest from Don Quixote’s hometown. Sancho challenges the barber, saying that he knows that the barber and the priest have taken Don Quixote captive. The barber threatens to lock Sancho in the cage too and Sancho becomes indignant. The canon tells the priest that he considers books of chivalry to be ridiculous lies and harmful to the populace. He also berates the style of chivalric books, saying that they should all be banished. The priest says he agrees for the most part but that he is able to appreciate them. The canon says he began writing a book of chivalry but stopped because he discovered that an author must write either good books that the crowds dislike or low-quality books that displease the critics. He then rails against the state of theatre in Spain and suggests that there should be a government official to oversee decisions about which plays get produced and which do not. Sancho tells Don Quixote that the barber and the priest have been faking his enchantment out of jealousy of his great deeds. Sancho asks Don Quixote whether he needs to use the bathroom; Don Quixote replies that he does. Sancho tells Don Quixote that since enchanted people have no bodily needs, Don Quixote’s need to use the bathroom proves that he is not enchanted. Don Quixote responds that there are new kinds of enchantment but promises nonetheless to try to free himself. When the party stops for lunch, the priest lets Don Quixote out of the cage. He and the canon argue about chivalry. The canon marvels that Don Quixote mingles fact and fiction with no concern for the difference. Don Quixote tells the story of the Knight of the Lake, a fantasy story of enchantment that he claims proves the delightful and fascinating nature of stories of knight-errantry. Don Quixote also tells the canon that since becoming a knight-errant he himself has been brave, courteous, and well-bred, enduring many adventures and enchantments. A goatherd appears, chasing a goat that has wandered into the group’s picnic. The group is amused that the goatherd speaks to the animal. The goatherd then tells the group that he is a peasant but knows how to converse with both men and beasts. The priest says that he is not surprised. The goatherd whose name is Eugenio tells the group that he and his friend Anselmo have been driven to the simple life of shepherds by Leandra, a beautiful, wealthy young woman from their town. Leandra ran away with an arrogant soldier who then robbed and abandoned her in a cave in the woods. Eugenio tells the group that the woods in the area ring with sounds of the sobbing shepherds who are in love with Leandra. Leandra’s father put her in a convent in hopes that over time she would recover her honour. The goatherd insults Don Quixote and the 2 of them brawl as the others cheer them on. Don Quixote then sees a group of penitents carrying an icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary on their way to pray for rain. Thinking that the penitents are rogues who have captured a lady, he attacks them and gets a beating from one of them. Sancho thinks Don Quixote has died and mourns his friend in a particularly eloquent elegy. Sancho’s words stir Don Quixote who agrees to go home until his luck changes. When Don Quixote and Sancho arrive home, Sancho’s wife (now called Juana) asks him what he has brought her. He puts her off, promising that he will soon be made a governor and has tales that will surely amuse her for now. Don Quixote’s niece and housekeeper welcome him home but worry about his madness. They fear he will disappear again.
The author tells us that he will. The author ends the narration by saying that he searched far and wide for more manuscripts about Don Quixote but that he was unable to find them until he met an aged doctor who found a leaden box in the remains of an ancient hermitage. The box contained several parchments with sonnets and epitaphs to Don Quixote, Sancho, and Dulcinea that the author reproduced. Finally he tells us that at great cost to himself, he has found an account of the 3rd expedition of Don Quixote and hopes to publish it.
PART II
Cid Hamete Benengeli continues his account of Don Quixote’s adventures by recounting the priest and the barber’s visit to Don Quixote after a month of not seeing him. Don Quixote initially seems sane but when the priest gets him started talking about chivalry, it becomes clear that Don Quixote has not given up his intention of being a knight-errant. Sancho comes to visit Don Quixote to find out when they will again embark on their quest for adventure but the niece and the housekeeper try to keep Sancho out of the house. Don Quixote orders them to let Sancho in and then asks Sancho about Don Quixote’s reputation in the village. Sancho tells him that many consider him mad. He then tells Don Quixote about the publication of a book of their previous adventures. The book contains so many details that Sancho marvels that the writer could have learned about all of them. Don Quixote thinks that the writer is a sage enchanter but Sancho says the writer is a Moor whose name is Cid Hamete Aubergine. Sancho goes to the village to find the student Sampson Carrasco from whom he has heard about the book. While Sancho fetches Sampson, Don Quixote muses that the Moorish enchanter who wrote the book must either want to tear him down or exalt him. He laments that the author is a Moor because he does not believe that Moors ever tell the truth. Sampson arrives and tells Don Quixote about the book and its author, Cid Hamete Benengeli. He also mentions that the book has been translated into Christian tongues. Sampson criticises the novel for the anecdotal digressions in which Don Quixote plays no part but says that everyone enjoys reading the novel nonetheless. He also mentions several textual inconsistencies regarding the appearance and disappearance of Dapple. Sancho says he can explain those inconsistencies but runs off with a stomach-ache. Sancho returns and explains that a thief stole Dapple from him when he was strung up. Sampson says that Sancho’s explanation does not justify the inconsistencies in the book and Sancho replies that perhaps the author or the printer made an error. He explains how he spent the 100 crowns he found in the saddlebags in the Sierra Morena and Sampson promises to tell the author so that he can revise the book. Sampson says that the author promises to publish the 2ND Part when he finds the manuscript. Sampson then tells Don Quixote about a jousting festival in Saragossa and suggests that he seek fame there. Don Quixote begs Sampson to write a poem in which each line begins with a letter of Dulcinea’s name. The author tells us that the translator doubts that this chapter is authentic because it seems impossible that Sancho would have spoken in such a high style. The author does not identify this translator. Sancho goes home to Teresa – whose name at the end of the 1ST Part is Juana – and tells her that he will soon be leaving with Don Quixote on another adventure. Teresa warns Sancho not to dream too much and be content with his station. Sancho replies that he wants to marry off his daughter and make her a countess. Teresa objects to this plan, saying that people are happier when they marry within their own class. The niece and housekeeper beg Don Quixote to stay at home. They say that if he must go he should join the king’s court rather than go on more adventures. Don Quixote insists that he must do what he was born to do and pursue his life as a knight-errant. He discusses honour and pedigree, claiming that he knows of only 2 ways to increase fame and honour—through arms or letters—and that he has chosen arms. Distressed at Don Quixote’s madness, the housekeeper begs Sampson to speak with him. Sancho visits Don Quixote and they discuss Teresa’s advice and her wish that Sancho receive wages from Don Quixote. Don Quixote refuses to fix Sancho’s wages and tells him to stay home if he does not have the strength to be a squire. Sancho weeps and promises to come along. Sampson too visits Don Quixote but instead of dissuading him from his journey, Sampson encourages him to embark at once. The author alludes to a plan Sampson has developed with the priest and the barber and says that the plan will be detailed later in the history. The author says that Cid Hamete Benengeli invokes Allaah before recounting that Don Quixote and Sancho once again go on the road. He begs us to forget the past adventures and pay attention only to what is to come. Don Quixote and Sancho think it a good sign that Rocinante and Dapple bray and stamp as they set out. Sancho thinks it an especially good sign that Dapple whinnies louder than Rocinante does. The author interjects to say that Benengeli’s history does not indicate whether Sancho’s belief is based on astrology. Don Quixote decides to go to El Toboso to visit Dulcinea. On the road, he and Sancho discuss the importance of fame. Don Quixote says that people value fame even in its negative form. Sancho says he believes they should try to become saints rather than knights because saints go to heaven. Don Quixote argues that the world already has enough saints and he was born to be a knight-errant. Don Quixote and Sancho decide to enter El Toboso at night. Sancho panics because he does not know which house is Dulcinea’s even though he supposedly visited her to give her Don Quixote’s letter. The 2 run into a ploughman who tells them he knows of no princesses in the area. They go outside the town to sleep. The author says that the author, presumably Cid Hamete Benengeli wanted to skip this chapter for fear that he would not be believed but decided to write it anyhow. Don Quixote dispatches Sancho to fetch Dulcinea and bring her to him. Sancho panics because he has never seen Dulcinea and fears he will be attacked if people see him wandering around the town looking for women. Sancho sits down for a while and has a lengthy dialogue with himself. He concludes that he can fool Don Quixote by abducting the first peasant girl he sees riding on the road and presenting her as Dulcinea. Sancho sees 3 young peasant girls riding. The author says that the author does not clarify whether these girls are riding on horses or donkeys. Sancho rushes to Don Quixote and informs him that Dulcinea is approaching with 2 maids on horseback but Don Quixote objects that he can see merely 3 peasants on donkeys. As the girls ride by, Sancho grabs one of them and falls down on his knees before her, praising her as Dulcinea. Though appalled by her appearance – and especially by her smell – Don Quixote believes that she is Dulcinea. He says that a wicked enchanter who wants to deny him the pleasure of seeing Dulcinea’s beauty has changed her into a peasant. Sancho describes Dulcinea to Don Quixote as he claims he saw her including a mole with 7 or 8 9-inch hairs coming out of it. On the road, Don Quixote and Sancho encounter a wagon filled with actors in costume. Don Quixote stops to speak to them but one of the costumes frightens Rocinante and the horse throws Don Quixote to the ground. One of the actors imitates Don Quixote’s antics by stealing Dapple and re-enacting the scene. Don Quixote rides Rocinante up to the wagon to avenge the injury but stops short when he sees the whole company lined up in the road, armed with rocks. Sancho talks his master out of attacking the group, pointing out that the actors are not knights and they returned Dapple unharmed. While sleeping in a grove, Don Quixote and Sancho meet another knight who claims to be pining away for his mistress, Casildea de Vandalia to whom he recites poetry. The narrator calls him the Knight of the Wood and calls his squire the Squire of the Wood. Sancho and the Squire of the Wood go off into the night to talk while Don Quixote and the Knight of the Wood stay where they are to talk. Sancho and the Squire of the Wood eat and drink while discussing their shared expectation that their masters will make each of them a governor of an isle. They also tell each other about their children. Sancho laments Don Quixote’s madness but says that he is honest and pure unlike the Knight of the Wood who is quite a rogue according to the Squire of the Wood. Sancho declares that he is a great taster of honey and the 2 of them drink until they pass out, still holding the flask. Meanwhile, Don Quixote and the Knight of the Wood discuss their knightly adventures. The Knight of the Wood tells Don Quixote that his lady has sent him into the world to make all knights proclaim her beauty. He says that his greatest conquest was his defeat of Don Quixote de la Mancha. Don Quixote tells the Knight that this cannot be possible and challenges him to a duel. The Knight of the Wood accepts but says that they must wait until morning. They rouse Sancho and the Squire of the Wood who discuss whether they too should fight. At dawn, Sancho sees the Squire of the Wood’s nose and becomes so frightened by its size that he scurries up a tree before the duel. The Knight of the Wood dresses in such fine, shiny material that he is renamed the Knight of the Mirrors but he refuses to show Don Quixote his face. Don Quixote pauses to help Sancho into the tree, throwing off the timing of the duel. As a result, the Knight of the Mirrors cannot get his horse going again fast enough, enabling Don Quixote to knock him off his horse quite easily. Don Quixote removes the Knight of the Mirrors’ visor, revealing Sampson Carrasco. Don Quixote does not believe that Sampson stands before him; he thinks that he is still under an enchantment. The Squire of the Wood removes his pasteboard nose and reveals himself as Thomas Cecial, Sancho’s neighbour. Sampson confesses Dulcinea’s beauty and Don Quixote spares him. Sampson reveals that he has been plotting with the priest and the barber to vanquish Don Quixote and order him to go home for 2 years. Samson’s squire leaves him but Samson vows revenge on Don Quixote. Sancho is confused about the identity of the Squire of the Wood and the Knight of the Mirrors. Don Quixote tries to convince him that the Squire of the Wood is not Sancho’s neighbour but rather an enchantment just as the Knight of the Wood is an enchantment that took the form of Sampson in an attempt to force Don Quixote’s mercy. Sancho who knows that the supposed enchantment of Dulcinea was a deception, does not know what to think now. On the road, Don Quixote and Sancho meet Don Diego de Miranda, a gentleman dressed all in green. Don Quixote introduces himself to Don Diego and tells him about the history that was written about his first adventures. Don Diego marvels that knights-errant still roam the land and is glad to hear about the book that he thinks might correct all the nonsense written in books of chivalry. Don Diego describes his life. Sancho begins to think the man is a saint and kisses his foot. Don Diego tells Don Quixote about his son who abandoned the sciences in favour of poetry. Don Quixote responds with an eloquent speech about the value of poetry that he compares to a delicate maiden. As they talk, Sancho wanders over to some shepherds to beg for milk. Don Quixote sees a cart coming toward him hung with the king’s flags and he senses another adventure. He summons Sancho who puts the curds he just bought from the shepherds into Don Quixote’s helmet. When Don Quixote puts on the helmet, the curds run down his face, and thinks that his brain is melting. When he recognises the curds in the helmet, he accuses Sancho of foul play but Sancho replies that an enchanter must have put them there. Don Quixote hails the cart. The mule driver tells him that the cart carries 2 lions for the king. Don Quixote challenges the lions and despite everyone’s protests, he insists on having the cage opened. The author interjects that Cid Hamete Benengeli extols Don Quixote’s bravery before continuing the narrative. The others run away and the lion tamer opens the cage. Don Quixote faces the lions with childish bravado but the lion just stretches and lies down again. Don Quixote decides not to provoke the lions. He calls the others back and the lion-tamer recounts the story of Don Quixote’s valour. Don Quixote tells Sancho to give the mule driver and the lion-tamer some money for their troubles and renames himself the Knight of the Lions. Don Quixote declares that he is not as insane as he may seem – it is better for a knight to err on the side of courage than on the side of cowardice. Don Diego invites Don Quixote and Sancho to his home. Don Quixote accepts. Don Quixote receives a warm welcome at Don Diego’s home where he meets Don Diego’s son, Don Lorenzo and asks him about his poetry. Don Lorenzo answers him, all the while wondering to himself whether Don Quixote is mad. After discussing the merits of poetry, Don Lorenzo decides that Don Quixote is indeed a madman but a brave one with a keen intelligence. Don Lorenzo recites some poetry for Don Quixote who says it is the best that he has ever heard. Don Lorenzo is flattered despite his belief that Don Quixote is insane. Don Quixote stays with Don Diego for 4 days and then sets out in search of more adventures. Don Quixote and Sancho meet some students and peasants on their way to the wedding of Quiteria the fair and Camacho the rich. The students tell Don Quixote about Quiteria and a man named Basilio who is in love with her. They say Quiteria is marrying Camacho only because of his wealth. In the course of the discussion, 2 of the students quarrel about the merits of studying swordplay and challenge each other to a duel in which Don Quixote acts as umpire. The more advanced student prevails, proving, according to the narrator that skill always prevails over strength. The group arrives at the village in the middle of the night but Don Quixote insists on sleeping outside the village in the fields. Don Quixote and Sancho arrive at the wedding that the narrator describes in great detail. Sancho praises Quiteria for marrying for wealth rather than love but Don Quixote does not. Quiteria and Camacho arrive at the wedding. Basilio shows up and throws himself on his dagger. With his dying breath, he refuses to confess himself to God unless Quiteria will marry him. Quiteria agrees. Basilio reveals that it is a trick – he has not stabbed himself at all. A brawl ensues. Don Quixote halts it, announcing that no one has the right to fight over wrongs committed in the name of love. Basilio and Quiteria remain married and Camacho takes satisfaction in the idea that Quiteria would always have loved Basilio anyway. Don Quixote and Sancho leave the party to accompany the newly-weds. Don Quixote and Sancho leave for Montesinos’ Cave with Basilio’s cousin, an author who writes parodies of great classical works as a guide. When the 3 arrive at Montesinos’ Cave, Sanc-ho and the guide lower Don Quixote into the cave by a rope. They wait for a half hour and then pull him up only to find him asleep. Don Quixote tells Sancho and Basilio’s cousin that when he went into the cave, he found a small nook and fell asleep there. When he woke up he was in a beautiful field. An old man approached him saying that he was Montesinos under a terrible enchantment. Montesinos confirmed that he cut out the heart of Durandarte, his cousin when Durandarte died. He took the heart to Belerma, Durandarte’s wife at Durandarte’s request. But he says Merlin has now put all of them under a spell so that they cannot leave the cave. Durandarte lies on the ground but occasionally sighs and speaks as if he were alive. According to Montesinos, Merlin prophesied Don Quixote’s coming and foresaw that Don Quixote would lift their enchantments. Don Quixote says he was in the cave for 3 days and 3 nights and saw Dulcinea in her ench-anted form there. Sancho who knows the truth about Dulcinea’s enchantment, thinks Don Quixote is crazy. Don Quixote says he understands that Sancho only speaks out against him because he loves him. Don Quixote says that Sancho will soon realise that the story is true though it may appear fantastical to him now. The author says that the translator found a note from Cid Hamete Benengeli in the margin of the manuscript, warning that he believed that Don Quixote’s story was not true and in fact, Don Quixote himself renounced it as false on his deathbed. Basilio’s cousin is thrilled by all the adventures in the cave and promises to use them in his books. Back on the road, he, Don Quixote, and Sancho meet a man with a load of weapons who promises to tell them his story if they meet him at the inn where he is staying. They then meet a youth on his way to war, and Don Quixote commends the boy’s bravery. At the inn, Don Quixote meets the man with the weapons. The man tells him a story of 2 magistrates who lost a donkey on a mountain near his village. To recover the ass, the magistrates went around the mountain braying like asses themselves and though they did not catch the donkey, they were very impressed with their own ability to imitate asses. Neighbouring villages heard about their frivolous antics and now each time a member of the man’s village passes a member of another village, the other villager brays at him. As a result, the 2 villages are going to war. Master Peter, a great and well-renowned puppeteer arrives at the inn with an ape that whispers people’s fortunes into Master Peter’s ear. Sancho tries to pay Master Peter to tell what his wife is doing now but Master Peter falls to his knees and the ape praises Don Quixote profusely. Don Quixote is flattered but believes Master Peter has made a pact with the devil. He asks the ape whether the incident in the cave was true or false and the ape replies that some parts were true and some false. Master Peter puts on a puppet show for Don Quixote. The puppet show depicts the travails of a knight who goes to rescue his wife from foreign lands. Don Quixote becomes so convinced that the show is real that he attacks and destroys the entire set. He explains that his enchanters bear responsibility for his actions because they made him believe that the puppets were real. Don Quixote pays Master Peter for his troubles nonetheless. He also treats the guests to a meal and pays the innkeeper. The author says that Cid Hamete Benengeli swears that Master Peter is actually Gines de Pasamonte, the galley slave whom Don Quixote frees earlier near the Sierra Morena. Benengeli then returns to the narration. Don Quixote and Sancho meet up with the army from the village whose magistrates brayed like asses. Don Quixote tries to talk the men out of attacking the other village, saying that one man cannot possibly insult an entire village. He nearly persuades the villagers and then Sancho takes over. Sancho explains that braying is nothing to be ashamed of and begins to bray himself. Thinking that Sancho is mocking them, the villagers attack him and knock him unconscious. Don Quixote runs away. The other villagers never show up to battle so the braying village goes home victorious and happy. Don Quixote berates Sancho for stupidly braying to a group of villagers already sensitive to the subject of braying. He explains that he retreated because a knight should not act out of temerity. Sancho brings up the question of his wages again and Don Quixote gets so angry that he tries to send Sancho away. Sancho however, apologises. Don Quixote and Sancho come to the river Ebro where they find a fishing boat. Don Quixote takes the empty boat as a sign that he must use it to aid some imperilled knight. Much to Sancho’s dismay, they tether Rocinante and Dapple to a tree and set off in the boat. They do not go very far but Don Quixote believes they have travelled 2000 miles. The boat reaches some mills where Don Quixote and Sancho nearly perish; some of the millers save them despite the curses of Don Quixote who believes that the millers hold a trapped knight-errant in their mill that he calls a castle. The angler who owns the boat, arrives and Don Quixote pays him off. In the woods, Don Quixote and Sancho encounter a Duchess hunting with a Duke. Don Quixote sends Sancho to speak with the Duchess and she receives him favourably since she has read the 1ST Part. She and the Duke resolve to treat Don Quixote according to the customs in books of chivalry. After initially falling off their respective mounts, Don Quixote and Sancho ride with the Duchess and the Duke to their castle. Don Quixote seeing that the Duke and Duchess are treating him according to chivalric traditions, feels certain that he is a true knight-errant. Sancho is also thrilled at their reception but when he asks one of the maidservants, Doña Rodriguez to care for Dapple. She refuses and they get into an argument. At dinner, the Duke forces Don Quixote to sit at the head of the table. Don Quixote and Sancho amuse the Duke and Duchess with their frivolity. The Duchess takes a particular liking to Sancho who repeatedly embarrasses his master with his simplicity. Don Quixote defends knight-errantry to a clergyman who condemns it as frivolity. The Duke promises Sancho that he will make him governor of some isle and the clergyman storms out in anger. The servants play a trick on Don Quixote by washing his head in a basin and pretending to run out of water in the middle so that he must sit at the table with a mound of suds on his head. The Duke forces them to wash his head in the same way to maintain the ruse. The Duchess asks Don Quixote to describe Dulcinea. He says he cannot remember what Dulcinea looks like since her memory was blotted from his mind when he saw her transformed into an ugly peasant by enchantment. The Duchess challenges Don Quixote on the fine points of his love for Dulcinea and asks how he can compare Dulcinea to other princesses when he cannot even prove that she comes from noble lineage. Don Quixote answers that Dulcinea’s virtues raise her above her noble heritage. Meanwhile, Sancho goes off with the servants but comes running back in with several servants who want to clean him with dirty dishwater. Sancho implores the Duchess to intercede that she does. After dinner, the Duchess asks Sancho to accompany her to a cool place. Sancho agrees and after making sure that the room contains no eavesdroppers, entertains her with stories of his adventures with Don Quixote. He tells her that he knows Don Quixote is crazy but that he stays with him out of loyalty. Sancho tells her how he deceived Don Quixote into believing in Dulcinea’s enchantment but the Duchess convinces Sancho that he is the one who was actually deceived. She says that Dulcinea really was transformed into a peasant girl. Sancho tells the Duchess about his argument with her maidservant, Doña Rodriguez and the Duchess vows to make sure that Dapple receives good care. The Duke and Duchess go on a deer hunt with Sancho and Don Quixote. During the hunt, Sancho becomes afraid and attempts to climb a tree. The Duke tells Sancho that hunting helps to hone a governor’s skill for warfare but Sancho maintains his distaste for the sport. Suddenly the woods fill with the sound of drumbeats and Moorish battle cries. The devil appears to announce the coming of Montesinos who will give instructions to Don Quixote about how to disenchant Dulcinea. The noises continue and 3 wagons drive by. The wagons that carry demons are drawn by oxen with torches on their horns. Each of the wagons contains an enchanter who announces himself and then drives on. An enormous wagon arrives carrying penitents dressed in white linen and a beautiful maiden with a golden veil. Merlin bearing the face of death’s head, also rides on the wagon and addresses Don Quixote in verse, telling him that to disenchant Dulcinea, Sancho must whip himself 3300 times on his bare buttocks willingly. This news distresses Sancho who says that Dulcinea’s enchantment is not his problem. The maiden on the wagon who pretends to be Dulcinea chastises Sancho for his reluctance to come to her aid and the Duke threatens to take away Sancho’s governorship if he does not comply. Sancho finally agrees but says that he will perform the whipping only when he feels like it. The scene pleases the Duke and the Duchess who it turns out, have arranged the whole trick in the first place. Sancho shows the Duchess a letter he wrote to his wife to tell her about his governorship. The Duchess shows the letter to the Duke over lunch. After lunch, to the sound of beating drums, a man appears, announces himself as Trifaldin of the White Beard, and requests that the Duke hear the plight of his maidservant. The Duke says he has heard about her misfortunes before and encourages her to come in. Given his difficult history with the maidservants, Sancho fears that they will interfere with his governorship. Doña Rodriguez defends her profession and derides squires like Sancho. The Duke tells them to listen to Trifaldin’s maidservant who is hereafter referred to as the Countess. Cid Hamete Benengeli briefly explains that the Countess Trifaldin’s name –that means the countess with the 3 skirts – derives from her dress. Benengeli tells how she arrives accompanied by a dozen maids, all wearing black opaque veils. The Countess throws herself down before Don Quixote and begs his assistance that he promises her. The Countess says she helped a knight at her king’s court to gain access to the princess whom she served as a maid. As a result, the princess got pregnant and had to marry the knight. The Countess says that the princess’s indiscretion so shocked her mother, the queen that her mother died 3 days later. To punish the princess and the knig-ht, the giant Malambruno turned the princess into a brass monkey and the knight into a metal crocodile on the queen’s grave. Malambruno also posted a metal post between them with a note indicating that only Don Quixote can save them from their fate. Finally in return for the Countess’s treachery, Malambruno gave her and all the other maids beards that cannot be removed. Don Quixote swears to avenge the Countess and the princess. The Countess tells him that the giant will send a flying wooden horse named Clavileño the Swift and Don Quixote must fly on this horse to journey to her country that night to fight the giant. Sancho dislikes the idea of flying anywhere on a wooden horse but the Duchess convinces him that he must go with his master. As the group waits in the garden, savages appear with a large wooden horse that they deliver to Don Quixote with instructions that he blindfold himself and Sancho for the journey. Don Quixote pulls Sancho aside and asks him to whip himself a few hundred times to get started on the disenchantment of Dulcinea. Sancho who dislikes the idea of riding on the back of a wooden saddle, refuses to whip himself. The blindfolded Don Quixote and Sancho mount Clavileño the Swift and prepare to set off. At the last moment, Don Quixote remembering the story of the Trojan horse, wants to check Clavileño’s belly but the Countess persuades him not to. Don Quixote turns a peg in Clavileño’s forehead and they set off. The others blow wind in Don Quixote and Sancho’s blindfolded faces, bring fire near their heads to convince them that they are flying through the air, and approaching the region of fire. The group then sets off firecrackers in Clavileño’s belly and the horse blows up, dumping Don Quixote and Sancho on the ground. Upon waking, Don Quixote discovers that he and Sancho are still in the garden. Everyone else has fainted and lies on the ground nearby. They find a note on parchment paper saying that merely by attempting this feat, Don Quixote has accomplished it. The Countess has gone. The Duchess and Duke tell them that she has embarked for home, happily beardless. Sancho tells the Duchess that he peeked as they flew, saw the earth no bigger than a mustard seed, and played with the goats in heaven. Don Quixote says that since they could not have passed through the region of fire without being burned up, Sancho must be either lying about the goats or dreaming. But afterward, Don Quixote whispers in Sancho’s ear that he will believe his story about the goats of heaven if Sancho will believe his story about Montesinos’ Cave. The Duke and Duchess, pleased with Don Quixote’s and Sancho’s reaction to the encounter with the Countess Trifaldin, send Sancho to his governorship right away. Sancho says he would rather have a piece of the sky than an isle but the Duke says he can provide him only with an isle. The Duke and Duchess dress Sancho up and pack him off to a town that he believes is an isle. Don Quixote gives Sancho advice on how to rule and reminds him never to be ashamed of his humble background. He also tells Sancho never to worry about injuring himself when confronting an enemy to marry only a woman who will not take bribes, have pity, and leniency on criminals. Don Quixote warns Sancho to refrain from eating garlic, onions since only peasants eat such things, walk slowly, speak deliberately, eat little, not to drink too much, belch, or use so many proverbs. Don Quixote laments Sancho’s illiteracy but Sancho says he will prevent anyone from discovering this deficiency by pretending that his writing hand has been paralysed. Sancho asks if Don Quixote thinks he will make a good governor since he would rather just be Sancho than imperil his soul as a bad governor. Don Quixote assures him that he will be an excellent governor precisely because of this attitude. The author interjects that the real original history claims that Cide Hamete Benengeli wrote this chapter in the form of a complaint addressed to himself for having written such a dry story and not including as many digressions as he did in the 1ST part. As he leaves for his governorship, Sancho mentions to Don Quixote that one of the stewards accompanying him looks and sounds exactly like the Countess Trifaldin but Don Quixote dismisses Sancho’s implication. After a sorrowful goodbye, Sancho sets out. Seeing that Don Quixote misses Sancho, the Duchess remarks that she has many maids who would gladly help cure Don Quixote’s melancholy. Don Quixote refuses her offer and goes straight to bed after dinner, insisting on being alone to keep himself from temptation. Don Quixote hears 2 women under his window arguing about whether 1 of them named Altisidora should sing a ballad to the man she loves. Altisidora does sing the ballad and Don Quixote concludes that she loves him. He laments his fate that no woman can see him and not fall in love. Meanwhile, Sancho wishes to begin governing and awaits them. The townspeople receive Sancho and set him up on the governor’s chair where they have written a proclamation that Don Sancho Panza took governorship on a certain date. Sancho has the proclamation read to him and then requests that no one call him Don since he is not a Don. He judges a series of cases, each involving some form of trickery that the townspeople bring before him. Sancho resolves each case with wit and wisdom, impressing the town with his governing abilities. In the morning, Don Quixote passes Altisidora who pretends to faint. He asks a servant to put a lute in his room that night so that he may disclose his love for Dulcinea in ballad form. Eager to play a trick on Don Quixote, Altisidora tells the Duke and Duchess about Don Quixote’s plan. They all listen to his ballad to Dulcinea that night. As Don Quixote sings, 1 of the servants lowers a rope with bells on it and a bag of cats with bells on their tails onto the balcony above Don Quixote’s window. The bells and the cats make a terrible noise, frightening Don Quixote and all those in the house. In the commotion, a couple of cats get into Don Quixote’s room. 1 of them jumps onto his face, bites his nose, and claws him. The Duke who has rushed up to the room to see what the matter is and removes the cat. Altisidora tries to woo Don Quixote as she bandages his face. Sancho goes to dinner hungry on the 1ST day on his alleged isle only to discover that a physician there will let him eat nothing for fear that it might be bad for him. In a fury, Sancho threatens the physician and sends him out of the room. A courier then arrives with a letter from the Duke telling Sancho that he has learned about a plan to attack the isle and kill Sancho. Sancho becomes convinced that the physician is 1 of the men threatening his life. A businessman arrives to ask Sancho for a letter of recommendation for his bewitched son (who likely suffers from autism) to marry the maimed, hunchbacked daughter of his neighbour. When the businessman also asks Sancho for 600 ducats, Sancho flies into a rage and threatens to kill him. In the mid-dle of the night, Doña Rodriguez creeps into Don Quixote’s room to ask him a favour. She tells Don Quixote the story of her daughter who was wooed by a farmer’s son who now refuses to marry her. The Duke refuses to force the farmer’s son to marry Doña Rodriguez’s daughter since the farmer is wealthy and the Duke does not want to risk losing the money he collects from the farmer. Don Quixote agrees to help Doña Rodriguez. She tells him that the Duchess has such a nice complexion because a physician drains the evil humours out of her legs. Doña Rodriguez’s announcement shocks Don Quixote because he considers the Duchess an upright woman but he admits that if Doña Rodriguez says it is true, it must be so. At this point, someone rushes in, slaps, and pinches both Doña Rodriguez and Don Quixote. Sancho encounters 2 criminal incidents on his rounds and then comes across a young girl dressed as a boy. The girl begins to cry, telling Sancho that her father, a widower keeps her locked up day and night and never lets her see the world. She says that has switched clothes with her brother and snuck out to see the town because she is curious. As she tells her story, a guard catches her brother. Sancho takes them both home and tells them to be more careful next time. The Duchess and Altisidora were listening outside Don Quixote’s door to Doña Rodriguez’s story about the Duchess’s legs. The Duchess and Altisidora ran in and pinched the 2. The Duchess then sent a page to Teresa Panza to deliver Sancho’s letter along with a letter and a necklace of coral from the Duchess. Teresa receives the page and is thrilled by the news that her husband has been made a governor. She runs off to tell Sampson and the priest who do not believe her until they speak with the page. Sampson offers to take dictation for Teresa’s letter back to Sancho but she does not trust him and goes to a friar to have him write it for her. The morning after his rounds, Sancho hears the petition of some judges who cannot decide whether to hang a man. The judges sit by a bridge whose owner demands that anyone wishing to cross must disclose his or her destination. If the person crossing tells the truth, he or she may pass but if the person lies, he or she must be hanged on the gallows on the other side. A man has come to the bridge saying that he is going to be hanged on the gallows that has confused the judges. If they set him free, then the man will be condemned by law to hang on the gallows but if they hang him, then they must subsequently free him. Sancho sets the man free on the grounds that it is better to be too lenient than too strict. Sancho receives a letter from Don Quixote that includes more advice about governing along with the news that Don Quixote plans to do something that will anger the Duke and Duchess. Sancho replies with a long letter full of news, asking Don Quixote not to provoke the Duke and Duchess since he does not want to lose his governorship. Sancho then makes the only laws he imposes during his governorship: a declaration that honey may be imported from anywhere as long as it clearly states its place of origin along with a decree that he will lower the price of footwear, fix the wages of servants, and for-bid the blind from singing about miracles unless the miracles are true. These laws please the populace so much that they still remain in effect and people call them the Constitutions of the great Governor Sancho Panza. His wounds from his fight with the cats are now healed and Don Quixote resolves to leave for the jousting tournament at Saragossa. Before he can ask the Duke’s permission to leave however, Doña Rodriguez and her daughter enter the great hall and throw themselves at Don Quixote’s feet, begging him to avenge the wrong the farmer’s son has done to them. Don Quixote promises to do so and the Duke agrees to facilitate a duel. The page returns from Teresa Panza with a letter for the Duchess and 1 for Sancho. The group reads both letters. The letter to the Duchess tells of Teresa’s desire to go to court in a coach in order to do honour to her husband’s name. Teresa also includes some acorns that she has harvested at the Duchess’s request. Teresa’s letter to Sancho rejoices in his success and tells some news about the village. The group applauds, laughs, and marvels at the letters. In the middle of the night after his 7TH day in office, Sancho hears cries of an attack on his isle. Playing a joke on him, his people urge him against his will to fight off the supposed enemies. They wrap him tightly between 2 shields and force him to begin marching but he cannot march and falls to the ground where they trample him. They then tell Sancho that they have prevailed against the enemy and praise him. But Sancho says that he must now abdicate his governorship since he was never meant to lead. He says he will go tell the Duke of his decision and leaves on the back of his faithful Dapple. The dishonourable lover of Doña Rodriguez’s daughter whom Don Quixote intends to fight has fled the country. The Duke orders the lover’s footman, Tosilos to take his place in the duel against Don Quixote. Meanwhile, as Sancho and Dapple head toward the castle, they encounter a group of German pilgrims along with Sancho’s old neighbour, Ricote the Moor who left Spain when the king exiled the Moors. Ricote who is on his way home to dig up some treasure he buried there, complains about his separation from his family during his exile. Sancho tells Ricote about his governorship and Ricote asks what Sancho gained from his term in government. Sancho answers that he learned that he can govern nothing but a herd of cattle. After leaving Ricote, Sancho and Dapple fall into a pit from which they cannot escape. Don Quixote finds them and gets others to help them out. Don Quixote and Sancho head back to the castle where Sancho tells the Duke and Duchess about the end of his governorship. The Duke says he is grieved that Sancho has left his post as governor so soon but says that he will find Sancho a better position at the castle. The Duchess says she will have someone care for Sancho’s badly bruised body. On the day of the duel, the Duke removes the steel tips from the lances so neither of the combatants will be killed and takes several other measures to ensure a harmless fight. When Tosilos sees Doña Rodriguez’s daughter however, he falls in love and refuses to charge Don Quixote. Instead, he proposes to the daughter. Thinking that he is the farmer’s son, she accepts but soon discovers the trick. Don Quixote assures the Duke that this transformation is nothing but the work of an evil enchanter but the Duke knowing the truth, locks up Tosilos. Don Quixote and Sancho bid the Duke and Duchess farewell. Sancho happily receives Teresa’s letters from the Duchess. As the pair starts to leave however, Altisidora pretending to be crushed that Don Quixote does not love her utters a curse against him in sonnet form. She berates his cruelty to her and accuses him of stealing 3 handkerchiefs and a garter. But when the Duke questions her, she admits that she has the garter. On the road, Don Quixote and Sancho encounter some workers carrying icons of saints to a nearby church. Don Quixote greatly admires the icons. In a wood beside the road, Don Quixote becomes entangled in some bird snares that he mistakes for an evil enchantment. The 2 shepherdesses who set the snares appear and invite Don Quixote and Sancho to the new pastoral paradise they and others from their village are trying to create. Don Quixote declines the invitation but is very impressed. He vows to stand in the middle of the highway for 2 days, forcing everyone who passes to admit that these 2 shepherdesses are the most beautiful maids in the world after Dulcinea. Shortly after Don Quixote takes up his position on the road however, a herd of bulls comes down the road. The herdsmen warn Don Quixote to step aside but Don Quixote, Sancho, Rocinante, and Dapple are crushed. Don Quixote and Sancho stop at an inn that Don Quixote does not mistake for a castle for once. Eating supper, they encounter 2 gentlemen who have read the counterfeit sequel to the 1ST Part of Don Quixote. Don Quixote exposes the book as a fake and the men criticise the book vehemently. Don Quixote also refuses to read the book, not wanting to give its author cause to gloat that people are reading it. When the 2 men tell Don Quixote that the false Don Quixote also travelled to Saragossa for a jousting competition, Don Quixote determines that he will never set foot in that town but go to Barcelona instead. Sick of waiting for Dulcinea’s disenchantment, Don Quixote tells Sancho he has decided to whip Sancho himself. The 2 argue. Sancho knocks Don Quixote down and before letting him up again, makes Don Quixote swear he will not whip him. Don Quixote and Sancho then meet a band of thieves who robs them although the thieves return the money at the command of their leader, Roque Guinart. Roque recognises Don Quixote from the stories about him and says he never believed him to be real before now. After a brief encounter with a distressed young woman who has killed her lover out of mistaken jealousy, Roque allows a group of wealthy individuals to keep most of their money, even giving some to 2 poor pilgrims travelling with them. Roque then kills 1 of his thieves for grumbling about his generosity. Roque sends a letter to a friend in Barcelona to alert him to Don Quixote’s imminent arrival. Don Quixote and Sancho enter Barcelona with a great following as the guests of Roque Guinart’s friends. A boy in town places burrs in Rocinante’s and Dapple’s tails, causing the 2 animals to throw their masters, much to the amusement of everyone but Don Quixote and Sancho. Don Quixote and Sancho’s host, Don Antonio Moreno confides in Don Quixote that he owns an enchanted brass head that answers any questions asked of it. The next day, Don Quixote and Sancho parade around Barcelona with thousands of people following them. Don Antonio’s men place a sign on Don Quixote’s back that identifies him and all the people of the town call to him. Don Quixote interprets their calls as proof of his fame. At a ball that evening, Don Quixote dances until he drops and Sancho is embarrassed for him. The next day, the brass head speaks to the guests via a hidden tube that allows a servant in the next room to hear and answer questions. Don Quixote asks the head whether the incident in Montesinos’ Cave was real and the head says that the incident was partly true and partly false. Don Quixote then asks whether Sancho will be whipped in order to disenchant Dulcinea and the head answers that though Sancho’s whipping will go slowly, Dulcinea’s disenchantment will eventually be accomplished. Don Quixote then goes to a publishing house where he discusses the art of translation with a translator and expresses his preference for histories that can be proved to be authentic. Don Quixote, Sancho, and Don Antonio visit the galleys. As a prank, the men hoist Sancho onto their shoulders and pass him around the ship. The ship amazes Sancho who concludes that he must be either in hell or purgatory. The galley captain spies a pirate ship in the distance that they approach and stop. A skirmish ensues and 2 of the galley soldiers die. Upon questioning, the captain of the Moorish pirate ship turns out to be a Christian woman, Anna Felix who is an exiled Moor returning to Spain for a treasure her father buried before he left. Sancho’s friend Ricote, a tourist on the ship recognises Anna, his daughter and they embrace. Together they invent a plan to save Anna’s lover, Don Gregorio who remains stranded in Moorish lands. Riding around 1 morning, Don Quixote encounters the Knight of the White Moon who challenges Don Quixote, makes him swear to go home, and stay there for a year if he is defeated. Don Quixote agrees and the 2 fight. The Knight of the White Moon conquers Don Quixote but says that he will not defame Dulcinea’s beauty. Don Quixote accepts the condition that he return home for a year. Don Antonio and others desperately want to know the true identity of the Knight of the White Moon so they follow him to an inn and pester him until he admits that he is Sampson Carrasco. Don Antonio chides Sampson for trying to bring Don Quixote back to his senses when people are deriving so much pleasure from his madness. Meanwhile, Don Gregorio rescued from Algiers, returns to Barcelona where he is happily reunited with Anna Felix. A forlorn Don Quixote departs Barcelona with Sancho who urges his master to cheer up, saying that a good man should be patient in all things. Sancho suggests that they hang Don Quixote’s armour in a tree but he refuses so Sancho places the armour on Dapple’s back and walks. On the road, they encounter a group caught up in an argument. The group seeks Don Quixote’s advice about a problem but Sancho settles the problem with what the group considers a very wise decision. Don Quixote and Sancho then encounter Tosilos. Tosilos says that just after they left the Duke’s castle, he was flogged for not fighting Don Quixote, the Duke sent Doña Rodriguez back to Castile, and Doña Rodriguez’s daughter became a nun. The news astonishes Don Quixote who still believes that Tosilos is the farmer’s son under an enchantment. Don Quixote implores Sancho to whip himself for Dulcinea’s sake but Sancho says he does not believe that his whipping will help Dulcinea. Don Quixote then decides to be a shepherd during his retirement. He and Sancho begin to fantasise about their simple, pastoral lives. Don Quixote wakes Sancho in the middle of the night to ask him again to whip himself but Sancho again refuses. Sancho discourses on the nature of sleep and Don Quixote marvels at Sancho’s eloquence. Don Quixote quotes 1 of Sancho’s own proverbs back to him, much to Sancho’s astonishment. Some hogs that are being driven to a fair trample Don Quixote, Sancho, and Rocinante but Don Quixote refuses to battle the hogs, believing instead that this trampling is punishment for his defeat at the hands of the Knight of the White Moon. Near dawn, 10 horsemen ride up, capture the pair, and drive them to the Duke’s castle. When the horsemen drag Don Quixote and Sancho into the Duke’s courtyard, Don Quixote recognises Altisidora on a funeral bier, apparently dead. The courtyard has been set up as a court with the Duke, the Duchess, and 2 old judges, Minos and Rhadamanthus sitting above the rest. A musician sings a poem – which Don Quixote recognises as an adaptation of another poet’s work – telling that Altisidora died out of her unrequited love for Don Quixote. Rhadamanthus demands that Sancho suffer a beating to bring Altisidora back to life. Sancho protests that he is tired of being beaten for Don Quixote’s lovers. He nevertheless receives the beating and Altisidora revives. Cid Hamete Benengeli tells how the Duke and Duchess were able to locate Don Quixote: on his way to defeat Don Quixote in the guise of the Knight of the White Moon, Sampson stopped at the Duke’s house. Sampson knew that Don Quixote and Sancho had been staying there because he had been told so by the Duke’s page who had visited Teresa Panza to deliver Sancho’s letter. Hearing that Sampson intended to end Don Quixote’s career, the Duke and Duchess determined to have 1 last bit of fun and put the funeral sequence into action. At this point, Benengeli declares that he considers the Duke and Duchess almost madder than Don Quixote and Sancho for poking so much fun at such fools. Altisidora comes into Don Quixote’s bedroom and tells him about her bizarre trip to the gates of hell. She says she saw devils playing tennis and using books – including the false sequel to Don Quixote – for balls. The devils said that this false sequel should be thrown into hell. The musician from the night before appears and Don Quixote asks him why he used another poet’s work to describe Altisidora’s situation. The musician answers that people commonly steal 1 another’s literature in this age, calling the practice poetic license. As Don Quixote and Sancho take their leave of the Duke and Duchess, Don Quixote recommends that Altisidora perform more chores so that she will not spend her days pining away for knights who do not love her. Don Quixote yet again suggests that Sancho whip himself and Sancho again refuses. Don Quixote offers to pay Sancho so Sancho goes into the woods and whips the trees so that his master will think he is whipping himself. The 2 then stop at an inn for the night where Don Quixote muses about the paintings on the walls, hoping 1 day to be the subject of such paintings. While at the inn, Don Quixote and Sancho encounter Don Alvaro Tarfe whom Don Quixote recalls from the false sequel. Don Alvaro admits that the false Don Quixote was his best friend but the Don Quixote he sees now is the real Don Quixote. Don Alvaro swears to this account before the mayor who records it. They stay overnight in the woods where Sancho completes his whipping, still only whipping the trees. As Don Quixote and Sancho enter their village, they hear 2 boys quarrelling and a hare running from greyhounds. Don Quixote takes these sounds for bad omens but Sancho disagrees. Sancho goes home to his family while Don Quixote finds the priest, the barber, and Sampson. He tells them about his retirement and plan to become a shepherd. They support his plan wholeheartedly. They also plan the jokes they will play on Don Quixote despite the protests of the niece and the housekeeper who want only to feed Don Quixote and put him to bed. Don Quixote falls ill with a tremendous fever and lies in bed for 6 days, during which Sancho never leaves his side. When he wakes on the 7TH day, Don Quixote has returned to sanity and recognises that his real name is Alonso Quixano. He disavows all books of chivalry and repents his past actions. The priest, the barber, and Sampson come by and try to persuade him to pursue further adventures, especially the disenchantment of Dulcinea but Don Quixote wants only to make his will. He leaves everything to his niece, his housekeeper, and Sancho. In his will, Don Quixote also tells his friends to ask the author of the false sequel to forgive him for providing the author with the occasion to write such nonsense. Don Quixote then dies. Cid Hamete Benengeli mourns Don Quixote’s passing, saying that he and Don Quixote were born for each other – Don Quixote to act and Benengeli to write. He adds that his sole purpose in writing was to rouse contempt for the fabulous and absurd stories of knight-errantry.
But the earliest English translation of the Spurious Don Quixote [The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha: by the Licentiate (doctorate)] by Alonso
Fernández de Avellaneda, of Tordesillas is also added here.
Reviews
Reviewer:
Federicopastor
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-
September 4, 2021
Subject: Missing plates and pages in the Avellaneda copy here contained
Subject: Missing plates and pages in the Avellaneda copy here contained
Corresponding images to the missing plates and pages in this copy (missed at scanning?) can be found in the Biblioteca Nacional de España page for this book. To be found in their "Biblioteca DIgital Hispana" ... see:
http://bdh-rd.bne.es/viewer.vm?id=0000191494&page=1
and
http://catalogo.bne.es/uhtbin/cgisirsi/?ps=JYFjzF5gaE/BNMADRID/236170818/9
About what is missing in their copy, see:
http://catalogo.bne.es/uhtbin/cgisirsi/?ps=JYFjzF5gaE/BNMADRID/236170818/9#ejemplares
http://bdh-rd.bne.es/viewer.vm?id=0000191494&page=1
and
http://catalogo.bne.es/uhtbin/cgisirsi/?ps=JYFjzF5gaE/BNMADRID/236170818/9
About what is missing in their copy, see:
http://catalogo.bne.es/uhtbin/cgisirsi/?ps=JYFjzF5gaE/BNMADRID/236170818/9#ejemplares
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